Only a few weeks into the job, and already regional high school vocational director Bob Drobneck was on a mission. It was a late Wednesday afternoon when Mr. Drobneck climbed into his black sedan, one of a handful of cars still remaining on school grounds at the end of the day, and pulled out onto the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.

On a recent Tuesday morning culinary students at the Martha’s Vineyard High School were preparing lunch for some of the teachers. They baked foccacia bread and made sandwiches with vegetables, whipped ricotta cheese and roast chicken, and Italian sausage and mozzarella cheese.

“The food is extraordinary,” said Cindy West, a Spanish teacher who attended the lunch. But cooking wasn’t the only item on the educational menu

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School has received approval from the state to officially close the early childhood education vocational program at the end of the next school year.

At the district school committee meeting Monday evening, Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss presented a letter from the state approving the school’s plan to close the program. In order to close the program, the school had to ensure that any student already enrolled would be able to finish the program. There are currently six students enrolled.

Her school day is bookended by chemistry and global studies, but for
Lauren Richards, the three hours sandwiched in between are anything but
abstract and theoretical. They are grimy, noisy, hot, smelly hours.

Miss Richards is a car mechanic in training, one of nine students at
the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School who major in the
vocational automotive program.